All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.
When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the supreme state will come to you uninvited and unexpected.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that by letting go of desires and expectations, one can attain a state of peace and fulfillment.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj emphasizes the importance of relinquishing desires and expectations in order to find true contentment and the ultimate state of being. When we stop demanding things from the world and from a higher power, we create space for genuine experiences and enlightenment to enter our lives effortlessly. This state of surrender allows for a profound internal transformation, often arriving without preconception or invitation.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a meditation workshop, this quote can be used to help participants focus on letting go of their mental burdens.
More from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
All quotes βEven faith in God is only a stage on the way. Ultimately you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.
Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it. Take care of the most important, the lesser will take care of itself. You do not tidy up a dark room. You open the windows first. Letting in the light makes everything easy. So, let us wait with improving others until we see ourselves as we are/ and have changed. There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself and everything will fall into its proper place.
Watch your thoughts as you watch the street traffic. People come and go; you register without response. It may not be easy in the beginning, but with some practice you will find that your mind can function on many levels at the same time and you can be aware of them all.
Learn to live without self concern. _x000D_ _x000D_ For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless and ever victorious. _x000D_ _x000D_ Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, _x000D_ _x000D_ you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.
Do not neglect this body. This is the house of God; take care of it, only in this body can God be realized.
Similar quotes
He appeared before me and departed. We were not able to speak to or touch each other. But in that short interval, he transformed many things inside me. He literally stirred my mind and body the way a spoon stirs a cup of cocoa, down to the depths of my internal organs and my womb.
It is true that 'I seem to see a table' does not entail 'I see a table'; but 'I seem to feel a pain' does entail 'I feel a pain'. So scepticism loses its force - cannot open up its characteristic gap - with regard to that which ultimately most concerns us, pleasure and pain.
But jealous souls will not be answered so, They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they're jealous. 'Tis a monster Begot upon itself, born on itself.
If God is to create or to preserve a creature, God must be present and must make and preserve God's creation both in its innermost and outermost aspects.
To be true to one's own freedom is, in essence, to honor and respect the freedom of all others.
One theory is that we will make war look so attractive that we undermine the deterrent. That's Never Never Land. What we have now would have been enough to deter Hitler. But we are talking in a different order of reality.